The diagram illustrates the process of producing canned pears, which consists of a total of 14 distinct steps, beginning with harvesting the raw fruit and culminating in the final dispatch of the finished product.
Overall, the process can be divided into three main stages: the preparation and initial processing of the raw pears, the canning and sterilization of the product, and finally, the packaging and distribution. The preparation phase involves eight initial steps before the actual canning takes place.
The process starts with Hand Picking the pears from the tree, after which they are moved to the processing facility via Transporting. Once they arrive, the pears are thoroughly cleaned in the Washing stage, followed by a Quality checking phase to ensure only suitable fruit is used. Next, they are sent to Cold storing, where the temperature is kept just above 0∘C.
Following the cold storage, the pears undergo several stages of physical preparation. First, they are subjected to Weighing/grading to sort them by size and weight, then the outer skin is removed in the Peeling step. After peeling, the pears are ready for Coring/slicing before being placed into cans in the Canning stage.
The final stages involve sealing and preparation for sale. The cans are first sent to Sealing to ensure they are airtight, followed by Cooking/sterilizing to preserve the contents. Once sterilization is complete, the cans proceed to Labelling before being stacked and kept in Storage. In the final step of the entire process, the canned pears are loaded onto vehicles for Despatch to retailers and consumers.